A straightforward wire transfer, typically split 30% advance and 70% before shipment. It’s fast and low-cost. But once the money leaves your account, you have no real leverage if the goods don’t match spec. TT only makes sense when you already trust the supplier, or when someone is physically inspecting the goods on your behalf before the balance is released.

Under Ex Works, the supplier’s responsibility ends the moment goods leave their factory gate. Loading, local transport, export clearance, ocean freight, insurance, and import duties all become your job. First-time buyers routinely underestimate these add-on costs by 15–20%, and if there’s a documentation error at origin, you’re the one fixing it from another country.

On ceramic tableware landing at €8 per unit ex-China, the new duty alone adds over €6.30 per unit – before freight, VAT, or margin. For a bulk dinnerware or hospitality tableware order, that swing is often larger than the entire manufacturing cost difference buyers used to chase between countries. India carries no anti-dumping duty on ceramic tableware into the EU, which means the landed cost gap has moved decisively in its favour.

On a candle shipment landing at €10 per unit ex-China, that duty alone adds roughly €5.70–€6 per unit, before freight, VAT, or margin. On a container-sized order, that’s the difference between a healthy margin and a shipment that barely breaks even. India carries no anti-dumping duty on candles into the EU – the cost comparison that held for years no longer holds.

Candle Import Duty into the EU (2026): China 56.7%–60.3% · India – no anti-dumping duty. Source: EU Regulation (EU) 2026/157, effective January 27, 2026, for five years.

• Genuine manufacturers who make things themselves, have proper facilities, and have a track record of export. These are who you want.
• Trading companies or brokers who present themselves as manufacturers but actually source from multiple factories and add their own margin. Not always a problem, but you should know what you’re working with.
• Opportunists who have good English, a polished website, and no real production capability. They take deposits and then scramble to fulfill orders, usually unsuccessfully.

Before 10am, the team has reviewed the status of every active order in production. For any order at or past 50% of its production timeline, an on-site check is either scheduled or in progress. Photographs from factory visits the previous day are reviewed against golden sample standards.

If anything is drifting – a finish inconsistency appearing in early pieces, a raw material substitution the factory has made without notification, a production pace that suggests a delivery date risk – this is the window to address it. Not after production is complete. Now.

Indian business communication runs heavily on WhatsApp. It is fast, informal, and effective for daily coordination. It is terrible for documentation. A verbal commitment on WhatsApp about price, delivery, or specification is worth very little when something goes wrong.

Use WhatsApp for speed. Confirm every decision that matters in writing by email. Price confirmed on a call? Follow up with an email summary. Delivery date adjusted? Email confirmation. This discipline prevents more disputes than any contract clause.

A factory quoting 500 pieces to a buyer they don’t know is not necessarily setting a hard limit. They are qualifying the buyer. A buyer who flinches at 500 pieces may not be serious. A buyer who explains their business model, their existing range, and their trajectory may get a different answer.

This is not negotiating. It is context. Factories make production planning decisions based on who the buyer is and whether the relationship has a future. More information changes the equation.

The agency calls you. They don’t wait for you to discover the inspection report and ask questions. They’ve already spoken to the factory. They have a proposed resolution – which pieces can be rectified on-site, what the realistic timeline is, and whether a partial shipment makes sense given your retail commitment.

They tell you the truth about what caused the issue. They don’t manage blame diplomatically. They explain what they missed in the in-line inspection and what they’re changing in their process.

And they stay on it. Daily updates, not reassurances.